Canyon?s Randle gives new meaning to ?puppet coach?

By Chad Peters - Express-News

Published 12:00 am, Wednesday, May 19, 2010

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New Braunfels Canyon players listen to coach Kevin Randle during practice. He will coach the Cougarettes when they begin their Class 4A regional semifinal best-of-3 series against Port Lavaca Calhoun on Friday night. less

New Braunfels Canyon players listen to coach Kevin Randle during practice. He will coach the Cougarettes when they begin their Class 4A regional semifinal best-of-3 series against Port Lavaca Calhoun on Friday ... more

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Two New Braunfels Canyon players made a sock puppet to represent coach Kevin Randle while he was unable to coach the team.

Two New Braunfels Canyon players made a sock puppet to represent coach Kevin Randle while he was unable to coach the team.

Canyon?s Randle gives new meaning to ?puppet coach?

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NEW BRAUNFELS — The sock-puppet version of Kevin Randle could not send in signals, tell a runner to go or do much else to influence New Braunfels Canyon's playoff softball series last week.

But none of that really mattered when the Cougarettes sought a suitable stand-in for their state championship-winning coach, whose status for the series was in question after being hospitalized for a week with an elbow infection.

The puppet met the most essential prerequisite — it possessed atop its “head” a cardboard-cutout likeness of Randle's trademark, good-fortuned khaki-colored Canyon cap.

“There was one game we almost lost this year where I didn't wear the hat,” Randle said, “and they (the girls) threw a fit and said I had to make sure I have it on all the time.

“They're concerned about the hat.”

Fortunately for the Cougarettes (29-2), it never came down to entrusting things to a sock puppet.

Randle, 42, returned to the team with hat in tow Thursday following a week-long stay in the hospital with a staph infection that spread throughout his right arm.

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He will continue coaching when the team begins its Class 4A regional semifinal, best-of-3 series against Port Lavaca Calhoun at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Weimar.

“There wasn't anything that was going to stop him from being here,” said senior first baseman Aby Kester, who along with teammate Kailee Vrana created the puppet.

Randle initially went to the hospital on May 5 after noticing tenderness and swelling in his arm following a practice. He was released and coached in a game the next day but was rushed back to the hospital afterward when his arm swelled up and turned bright red from shoulder to fingertip.

He was hospitalized for a week as doctors searched for the right antibiotic. Randle said he is allergic to sulfa, the medication typically used for staph, complicating his recovery process and forcing him to miss one playoff game.

He was finally released for good last Wednesday, enabling him to return to the dugout. He has since taken on a less-active role because his still-swollen elbow prevents him from throwing or batting.

Randle said doctors say he does not pose a health risk to his players. Canyon principal Brad Brown confirmed as much, adding the school is taking every precautionary measure as always to prevent the spread of staph.

“It was kind of scary when the arm started swelling up,” Randle said. “At some point, you start to wonder how bad it's going to get. But the worst part was being away from the team.”

With Randle gone, his players quietly worried about his health as they geared toward trying to repeat as state champs.

“It was like a piece of us was missing,” catcher Mandy Ogle said. “He's like a father figure to us. Without him, it didn't feel right — but we knew we wanted to do it for him.”

Unsure of when Randle might return, Kester and Vrana wanted to ensure he would remain present in some capacity.

The seniors, classmates in a future teacher program, found their answer when they received an assignment early last week to make a sock puppet.

“We made it of him to put on our bat, like he was always going to be with us at the game,” Kester said.

Even with Randle back, the puppet is a fixture in the dugout.

Randle can't yet high-five with his right arm, so it has become customary for the Cougarettes to high-five the puppet upon entering the dugout.